Myth:
1. IT IS SO HOT.
KINDA YEAH. In the evenings, it was actually quite perfect. Mornings were humid. But nothing was unbearable. Everything said it was in the 80's-90's but it really didn't feel that bad, seriously. I couldn't get over it. Yeah, it was pretty hot but it was definitely manageable.
2. I WILL LEARN A LOT
SO TRUE. so true.
Wow. From the conference, from the city, from the lovely women I met and spoke with. I learned a lot, both good and bad. It was incredible.
We had all recovered as best we could from the other day's incident. From what I saw, it looked like most of us international ladies handled it well and were ready for another day abroad. Unfortunately the local girls didn't feel the same way and we were missing out on quite a few of them.
In addition to everything, it was the day I was most anticipating, because we would be in groups again for most of the day, discussing human trafficking.
Still, when I arrived to the Orange Group's room, it seemed that our party had about shrunk into half. Again, my buddy wasn't there, nor several of the other girls.
This did not deter us, and we dived right in. We began with some morning activities and then started discussing human trafficking. There are essentially three variations of human trafficking:
-Forced Labor
-Sex slavery
-Organ Trafficking
These can happen to men, women and children. 80% women, 45% children, I believe it was. I could be wrong, you'll need to check the technicalities but I know I'm pretty close.
It makes about $32 billion a year, and is thus the second growing industry, right behind drugs.
One thing that I have since learned, is that everyone thinks it happens the least in their own country. It is everywhere. Most people have come across it, whether or not they knew it. But once you begin diving into the news, you will find another story. In my research, I came upon a story from Salt Lake City, where a woman narrowly escaped being taken to Vegas- and she had already been taken (from Florida or New York).
There is another man, LDS with a family, who left the FBI/CIA (one of them) to start his own cause and just busted a large ring of child sex trafficking in Southern America. It is happening everywhere, and nowhere is free.
Of course, there are government and even private units that are seeking to stop this trade. But obviously, it hasn't been stopped. Few people escape. And those who do, are affected forever- scarred both emotionally and physically.
Before we gathered together again, we were given the responsibility to focus on sex trafficking and to make a poster about it. Our leader really, really, really wanted a skit. None of the other girls were interested in it. In fact, none of them were a lot of help to get things started. I tried to share some suggestions, but I think there was some miscommunication at some point and we couldn't seem to agree.
(Oh, subpiece. The Second day I joined a few girls to wander around campus and enjoy the area during lunch. We entered the gym where the girls were having a mini fair with free tea (their popular stuff tastes like chai), snacks, and wandered around to take pictures for instagram and stuff. It was an event for well being and super cute!)
Anyways, we eventually sorted things out to make three posters, and spent about two hours on that until lunch. After lunch, we tried again to finish things up, and I wrote a short script that sort of counted as a possible "skit" and finally managed to get Cookie to read it since no one else was willing, and I don't find it appropriate reading my own things.
Then we gathered together in the multipurpose room with our presentations!
A few of them were fairly humorous, which I had wanted to attempt but the subject doesn't have much room for that. They carried many of the same themes in nice presentations and similar scripting, portraying those who had suffered.
It was a powerful message and I think it resonated with all of us.
After the presentations, we were supposed to have a speaker to discuss the topic. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to be there and so we never ended up having that happen. All the same, we made it work for us. We hung out for a while more, discussed the topic in our group, and then the conference bit was over and we were ready for the night's activity!
Ehm, a desert ride.
Yup!
They went around strongly suggesting girls to take the "calm" one with no bumping... but that wasn't about to stop me! Possibly my own chance so obviously I'm going to go all out for some dune bashing and driving and jumping around!
And it was amazing. Long drive, unfortunately, which I was not prepared for. But we dozed a bit and finally reached the sands. Drivers stopped to let out some air in the tires, and then we headed out! It really wasn't that dangerous, but it was fun and bumpy and pretty exciting. They stopped about three times for us to run around, take pictures, and attempt to climb the dunes.
This sand was so pure and soft and orange with no litter. It was so refreshing, I loved it.
Plus, the weather was even perfect at the moment. Warm with a slight breeze, but essentially perfect, okay? Do you know how rare that is? TOO RARE. I loved it. And it was a small desert, but it looked like it went on forever. And I would have been all right staying there.
So after that thrill, we finally went back in the cars (the men driving were a little restless with all of us going nuts), and we finally arrived at our little spot in the desert. You can rent these little places out and host large parties. You can get a variety of "specials" like camels, henna, food, and so on. It's set up with pillows and tiny tables around a nice dance floor, and little spots around in the shelter with some sandy but still sanitary bathrooms....
The whole evening was chill and relaxed with no plans, so we took our time. We sat down on pillows, chatted, had drinks, I rode a camel for like twenty seconds, I got henna, and eventually the food was ready after dark.
So I definitely took a chance in the clear night to look for constellations (that was dizzying) but I couldn't find the few I knew, so that was a bummer. But the food was good, I tried real falafel and wasn't really impressed, but it wasn't too bad!
And soon after that, music played! It was fun watching all the girls really relax, destress, and jam out to all these songs! Which is always interesting when I go abroad- I never really know or feel like America has its own culture, you know? But then I go places, and I see people embracing it, and I realize we do. Fun clothes, funky music, and more. I even brought basic candy that I thought had traveled around the world by now- and they hadn't! Not everyone has Reese's Cups, you guys!
So yeah, that was our super fun desert safari sort of event, and it was great! We were there for a few hours- some girls still dancing and others ready to fall asleep- before finally heading back to the hotel. We were all exhausted by the time we finally got around to returning to the hotel for the evening.
A very, very good end to an intellectual and stimulating day.
1. IT IS SO HOT.
KINDA YEAH. In the evenings, it was actually quite perfect. Mornings were humid. But nothing was unbearable. Everything said it was in the 80's-90's but it really didn't feel that bad, seriously. I couldn't get over it. Yeah, it was pretty hot but it was definitely manageable.
2. I WILL LEARN A LOT
SO TRUE. so true.
Wow. From the conference, from the city, from the lovely women I met and spoke with. I learned a lot, both good and bad. It was incredible.
We had all recovered as best we could from the other day's incident. From what I saw, it looked like most of us international ladies handled it well and were ready for another day abroad. Unfortunately the local girls didn't feel the same way and we were missing out on quite a few of them.
In addition to everything, it was the day I was most anticipating, because we would be in groups again for most of the day, discussing human trafficking.
Still, when I arrived to the Orange Group's room, it seemed that our party had about shrunk into half. Again, my buddy wasn't there, nor several of the other girls.
This did not deter us, and we dived right in. We began with some morning activities and then started discussing human trafficking. There are essentially three variations of human trafficking:
-Forced Labor
-Sex slavery
-Organ Trafficking
These can happen to men, women and children. 80% women, 45% children, I believe it was. I could be wrong, you'll need to check the technicalities but I know I'm pretty close.
It makes about $32 billion a year, and is thus the second growing industry, right behind drugs.
One thing that I have since learned, is that everyone thinks it happens the least in their own country. It is everywhere. Most people have come across it, whether or not they knew it. But once you begin diving into the news, you will find another story. In my research, I came upon a story from Salt Lake City, where a woman narrowly escaped being taken to Vegas- and she had already been taken (from Florida or New York).
There is another man, LDS with a family, who left the FBI/CIA (one of them) to start his own cause and just busted a large ring of child sex trafficking in Southern America. It is happening everywhere, and nowhere is free.
Of course, there are government and even private units that are seeking to stop this trade. But obviously, it hasn't been stopped. Few people escape. And those who do, are affected forever- scarred both emotionally and physically.
Before we gathered together again, we were given the responsibility to focus on sex trafficking and to make a poster about it. Our leader really, really, really wanted a skit. None of the other girls were interested in it. In fact, none of them were a lot of help to get things started. I tried to share some suggestions, but I think there was some miscommunication at some point and we couldn't seem to agree.
(Oh, subpiece. The Second day I joined a few girls to wander around campus and enjoy the area during lunch. We entered the gym where the girls were having a mini fair with free tea (their popular stuff tastes like chai), snacks, and wandered around to take pictures for instagram and stuff. It was an event for well being and super cute!)
Anyways, we eventually sorted things out to make three posters, and spent about two hours on that until lunch. After lunch, we tried again to finish things up, and I wrote a short script that sort of counted as a possible "skit" and finally managed to get Cookie to read it since no one else was willing, and I don't find it appropriate reading my own things.
Then we gathered together in the multipurpose room with our presentations!
A few of them were fairly humorous, which I had wanted to attempt but the subject doesn't have much room for that. They carried many of the same themes in nice presentations and similar scripting, portraying those who had suffered.It was a powerful message and I think it resonated with all of us.
After the presentations, we were supposed to have a speaker to discuss the topic. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to be there and so we never ended up having that happen. All the same, we made it work for us. We hung out for a while more, discussed the topic in our group, and then the conference bit was over and we were ready for the night's activity!
Ehm, a desert ride.
Yup!
They went around strongly suggesting girls to take the "calm" one with no bumping... but that wasn't about to stop me! Possibly my own chance so obviously I'm going to go all out for some dune bashing and driving and jumping around!
This sand was so pure and soft and orange with no litter. It was so refreshing, I loved it.
Plus, the weather was even perfect at the moment. Warm with a slight breeze, but essentially perfect, okay? Do you know how rare that is? TOO RARE. I loved it. And it was a small desert, but it looked like it went on forever. And I would have been all right staying there.
So after that thrill, we finally went back in the cars (the men driving were a little restless with all of us going nuts), and we finally arrived at our little spot in the desert. You can rent these little places out and host large parties. You can get a variety of "specials" like camels, henna, food, and so on. It's set up with pillows and tiny tables around a nice dance floor, and little spots around in the shelter with some sandy but still sanitary bathrooms....
The whole evening was chill and relaxed with no plans, so we took our time. We sat down on pillows, chatted, had drinks, I rode a camel for like twenty seconds, I got henna, and eventually the food was ready after dark.
So I definitely took a chance in the clear night to look for constellations (that was dizzying) but I couldn't find the few I knew, so that was a bummer. But the food was good, I tried real falafel and wasn't really impressed, but it wasn't too bad!
And soon after that, music played! It was fun watching all the girls really relax, destress, and jam out to all these songs! Which is always interesting when I go abroad- I never really know or feel like America has its own culture, you know? But then I go places, and I see people embracing it, and I realize we do. Fun clothes, funky music, and more. I even brought basic candy that I thought had traveled around the world by now- and they hadn't! Not everyone has Reese's Cups, you guys!So yeah, that was our super fun desert safari sort of event, and it was great! We were there for a few hours- some girls still dancing and others ready to fall asleep- before finally heading back to the hotel. We were all exhausted by the time we finally got around to returning to the hotel for the evening.
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